Statutory Committee

Striking-off ordered after assault on work colleague

A pharmacist who threatened a work colleague with a broken bottle in front of customers is to be removed from the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists on the order of the Statutory Committee.

The pharmacist, Harwinder Singh Doal (registration number 3000717), was convicted of religiously aggravated common assault for the offence. He also has convictions for using or threatening unlawful violence, criminal damage; possessing an offensive weapon, affray, breach of a community punishment order and drink-driving.

At its meeting on 14 December 2005, the committee heard that on 15 April 1997, at Luton Magistrates’ Court, Mr Doal pleaded guilty and was convicted of the following offences committed on 2 February 1997: (1) using or threatening unlawful violence towards another; (2) without lawful excuse, damaging a front door lock and door frame to the value of £100; and (3) without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, having with him in a public place an offensive weapon, namely, a flail. He was sentenced to 28 days’ imprisonment on each charge and ordered to pay £50 compensation on the first charge.

On 22 December 2000, at Birmingham Crown Court, Mr Doal pleaded guilty and was convicted of affray, for which he was sentenced to community service of 160 hours and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £150.

On 12 January 2005, at Nottingham Crown Court, Mr Doal pleaded not guilty but was convicted of religiously aggravated common assault, for which was sentenced to 100 hours’ community punishment and 12 months’ community rehabilitation on condition that he attended a CALM (controlling anger and learning to manage it) programme.

On 13 June 2005, at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, he was fined £50 and ordered to pay £25 costs for breaching a community punishment order.

On 24 June 2005, at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, following a guilty plea, he was convicted of driving with excess alcohol on 10 June 2005, for which he was fined £100, disqualified from driving for 16 months and ordered to pay £45 costs.

The committee heard that the 1997 convictions arose from an argument Mr Doal and his brother had had with neighbours. They had kicked in the neighbours’ front door and Mr Doal had used a rice flail (numchaku) to threaten a police officer who was called to the scene.

The conviction in 2000 arose from an attack by Mr Doal on a man outside a Birmingham night club.

The January 2005 conviction followed an attack by Mr Doal on a junior staff member while working as a pharmacist in an Asda store in Nottingham, on 18 December 2003. He told the man, a Muslim, that if he went out with an Indian woman he would be killed. He screamed: “I would like to help her father kill you.” He then dragged the man down an aisle in the shop, picked up a broken bottle and threatened him with it before pressing a pen into his neck and saying: “I’ll show you how I’ll kill you.” He later poked the man in the eye.

The 24 June 2005 conviction followed Mr Doal’s arrest after crashing his car into a house on a Birmingham residential street while twice over the legal drink drive limit. As he was taken to the police station, he yelled at police officers: “You’re all a bunch of fags and lesbians. F*** the lot of you.”

During the hearing, Mr Doal apologised to the committee. He said that he had been through a lot but that he was not a thug and he had learnt his lesson. He claimed that if he could not work as a pharmacist he would be a burden on the taxpayer because he could not do any other job.

Giving the committee’s determination, the chairman, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, QC, said that Mr Doal was a student at the time of his 1997 convictions and the committee did not place too much emphasis on them, notwithstanding their serious character and the sentence imposed by the court.

On the conviction for a religiously aggravated common assault, the chairman said: “We would regard that as a deeply unpleasant incident and the conviction was exacerbated in our eyes in view of the fact that the assault took place on an assistant within a pharmacy.”

The chairman noted that in June 2005 Mr Doal had been fined £50 for breaching the January 2005 community punishment order. “As if that was not enough, we understand that Mr Doal, on his own explanation, is to be in court again in the next few days for what appears to be yet a further breach of the order.”

The chairman continued: “We find the convictions all proved insofar as that is necessary, in view of the fact that Mr Doal has admitted them all, and we consider them to be such as to render him unfit to be on the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists.”

The chairman noted that in September 2005 the Royal Pharmaceutical Society had written to Mr Doal. He appeared to have taken its advice by transferring to the non-practising register but the Society had not yet received the medical report it had also sought.

The Society tried hard to provide support mechanisms for errant pharmacists, said the chairman, and Mr Doal should consider carefully the means of support set out in the letter.

In all the circumstances, said the chairman, the committee had no option but to direct the removal of Mr Doal’s name from the Register. If in the future he wanted to have his name restored, the committee would wish to be satisfied that he had taken the advice set out in that letter, sought the assistance suggested, controlled his temper and shown a proper regard for the law of the land.

“If nothing adverse is reported against him in the intervening years, we would also want to be certain that he is clear of any dependence on alcohol and the proof of that would best be established by a full psychiatric report which indicated that there is no confusion in his mind over the relationship between alcohol and his anger. We would want to see it properly controlled.”

Mr Doal was informed that he had three months in which to consider an appeal against the decision and was advised to seek legal advice if he wished to appeal.